The Misadventures of Michael McMichaels, Vol. 4: The Double Dog Dare

By Tony Penn

In volume 4 of the popular Misadventures of Michael McMichaels series, Michael finds himself in hot water again… but this time, it’s all in the name of salvaging his status as Kenny’s best friend. When wealthy new student Zeke moves into the neighborhood, he threatens to steal away Michael’s best friend Kenny. Green with envy, Michael challenges Zeke to crazy double-dog dares just to prove he’s still top dog and Kenny’s best bro. But when harmless dares escalate into bad jokes that hurt others, Michael has to figure out how to make things right again.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Boys Town Press
• Release date: Mar 4, 2020
• ISBN: 9781545744024

Book preview

Chapter 1

You’re not going to believe THE MESS I got myself into this time. My life stinks! It stinks worse than garbage just before you’re about to walk it to the curb. Have you ever leaned in and sniffed it then? I suggest you don’t, especially if there’s a baby’s diaper in there. In that case, I’d hold the garbage with one hand and pinch my nostrils with the other. (You’ll need someone to open the front door for you if you do that, but you get the point.)

Well, I’d rather stick my face in the garbage for an hour than have to deal with the mess I got myself into this time. It’s a Double-Dog Dare contest with a really crazy rich kid, Zeke, who threatened to give me a HUGE dare! Something he said he KNEW I’d be too chicken to do. And, it’s bad, REALLY bad. But I have to do it because if I don’t, it means I’m not really my buddy Kenny’s best friend. Before I tell you what it is, I need to let you know how all of this started.

You see, it started as kind of fun, but now it’s gotten out of hand, and I don’t know how to stop it. Why does this kind of thing always happen to me?

Everything was going fine and dandy until a couple of weeks ago when Kenny had his birthday party. It was a normal kind of party at his house with kids from our class and the neighborhood who went to different schools. There was also a clown, but I couldn’t wait for him to finish up because I find clowns annoying.

We ate lasagna, played some fun games and were at the gift-giving part when the incident happened. Just to be polite, everyone was oohing and aahing at every gift, the way people do. Even the socks, Absimil, a new student in our class from Somalia, got for Kenny impressed everyone. Absimil and his family were living with another family in our area because they were refugees. We all knew they didn’t have much money but, really, who wants to get socks for a gift? There were also a couple of video-game gifts, which the kids seemed the most excited about. And, from me, a boxed set of Encyclopedia Brown books because I know Kenny likes to read, and I couldn’t bear my best friend not knowing about my favorite series any longer.

So far, so good, right? Well, up until another new kid in the school, Zeke, handed Kenny his gift, everything was fine. Zeke had moved to the area a few weeks ago, into the biggest and most expensive house that an old doctor and his wife had lived in since before I was born. Zeke’s parents work for some fancy company, and not only are they rich, they want everyone to know it. They already added an extra floor and a pool to the house they bought. Zeke’s dad’s car is red, foreign, and shiny. His mother wears sparkly jewelry and fancy clothes like ladies at a wedding. Zeke is also in Ms. Mitchell’s class with Kenny and me, and lots of kids find him annoying because he’s always asking how much everyone’s sneakers cost and where they went on their last vacation, etc., to try to find out how much money they have.

Kenny recently started talking to Zeke about basketball, which I don’t know much about because it just seems like a bunch of guys running back and forth and making squeaking noises with their sneakers. Since Kenny’s parents drive an expensive car, I guess Zeke found him fancy enough to be friends with because Kenny invited him to the party. Right after Kenny opened my gift, he opened Zeke’s. It was a tower of video games, and when I say tower, I mean a TOWER! It was at least as high as Kenny himself, and the other kids in the room started freaking out when they saw it. Everyone